In recent years, the Gulf Coast region has been tremendously affected by the landfall of large hurricanes. In 2005, Category 3 Hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated the coastal regions of Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas, and in 2008, Hurricane Ike (a Category 2 storm) came ashore over Galveston and wreaked havoc in the Houston area, knocking out power to many customers in the greater Houston metro area for several weeks.

The University of Houston’s colleges of business and engineering have gained new support from one of the city’s energy leaders, which has donated money to a variety of programs and student support services.

Phillips 66, a Houston-based energy manufacturing and logistics company, was created in 2012 through a split with ConocoPhillips. It cracked the top 10 in the Fortune 500 last year, reaching No. 6 with revenue over $161 billion in 2013.

Ridwan Ajala, a beloved undergraduate student at the UH Cullen College of Engineering, passed away on Tuesday, June 24th. Ridwan touched many members of the Cullen College community with his incredible work ethic, infectious positive attitude, and dedication as a student and friend. To say that he was loved and will be missed by our community is an understatement.

Each spring, the University of Houston recognizes exceptional faculty member across the university at the annual UH Faculty Excellence Awards Ceremony. This year, nine Cullen College of Engineering faculty members were honored for their great strides in teaching and research excellence.

Computers and other technologies have vastly increased our ability to collect data on just about anything you can imagine. However, one major drawback to this is our inability to keep up with the amount of data being produced by these technologies. In many cases, the vast amounts of data being collected are going unused – that is, until more sophisticated software or other data-mining tools can be developed to decipher, apply and use this data in meaningful ways.

A team of researchers from University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering and Qatar University has won a $779,000 grant to develop a new way to rehabilitate deteriorating reinforced concrete structures.

Damage to natural gas pipelines is both dangerous and expensive to repair. Much of it is also entirely avoidable.

Excavators cause about 30 percent of pipeline damage incidents. In most of these events, the team working the excavator hadn’t bothered to find out if a natural gas pipeline is nearby before digging, even though there’s a national hotline set up to provide this information 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Anyone with respiratory sensitivities like asthma or allergies knows Houston’s air quality can be a problem.

Four Young UH Alums Honored During EWeekFebruary 17, 2014Yesterday marked the start of National Engineers Week, a time to recognize the essential roles engineers play in modern society. In cooperation with...

Yesterday marked the start of National Engineers Week, a time to recognize the essential roles engineers play in modern society. In cooperation with the Houston Engineers Week Committee, engineering professional organizations and societies in and around the Houston area use this time to recognize their outstanding young members with a Young Engineer of the Year Award. This year, four alums of the University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering received the honor.

As part of its ongoing effort to support entrepreneurship among its faculty and students, the University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering is hosting an Intellectual Property Training Series for the second year in a row. This latest IP Training Series will begin on March 21.

Last November, we told you about a team of UH Cullen College of Engineering students who were chosen to take a coveted ride in NASA’s reduced gravity aircraft, known as the “Vomit Comet.” The UH “Cougarnauts” team members were chosen as part of an elite group to participate in NASA’s Reduced Gravity Education Flight Program, where they performed an assigned experiment during 25-second bouts of weightlessness inside the aircraft. The UH students studied the effects of freezing water in zero-gravity conditions.

MEET TEAM PRIMER…A group of mechanical engineering undergrads at the University of Houston Cullen College of Engineering who will be competing in the upcoming Shell Eco-marathon in Houston from April 25th to 27th. The 12-member team is currently building an ultra-energy efficient, battery-powered vehicle from the ground up. Team Primer will enter their vehicle, named “EcoPrimer,” under the marathon’s “prototype” class, focusing on maximizing the car’s efficiency rather than the driver’s comfort. The team members’ tireless work on “EcoPrimer” will double as their senior Capstone Design projects, the penultimate project for all graduating seniors at the Cullen College.

Although the winners of the 2013 UH Cullen College of Engineering faculty awards were announced in May of last year, they were honored again last Friday at Dean Tedesco's faculty and staff meeting when each winner was handed their certificate.

You may see quite a few college students at the next Science and Engineering Fair of Houston (SEFH) on February 19th and 20th, but they won’t be competing against the middle and high school students participating in the fair. Instead, they’ll be learning from them.